Taft Wins Its 2nd Academic Decathlon

In sweeping to their school’s second national academic decathlon championship, the nine jubilant students from Taft High School declared Sunday a glorious day for their school, their school district, their city, their state--heck, maybe even their planet.

“I am the happiest girl in the world!” exulted 16-year-old Kimberly Shapiro.

The Woodland Hills students earned a score of 49,372, beating the next-closest team in the 13th annual battle of the brains by more than 2,000 points, and capturing more than half of the $30,000 in scholarships awarded to individual students.

Taft senior Daniel Berdichevsky, 17, also claimed the tournament’s highest individual accolade, earning the top overall score and a $5,000 scholarship.

“We put everything into it and we got everything out of it,” Berdichevsky said. “Everything we’ve been trying to do for the past year is win the national championship, and we’ve done it.”

This was Taft’s second national championship in the 10-event competition. The school took home a first-place prize in 1989 and second place last year. The sweetness of winning the prize for an embattled school district wasn’t lost on some.

“New Jersey spends $12,000 per student,” said Dan Isaacs, assistant superintendent of school operations for the Los Angeles Unified School District, who was among the 68 parents and supporters in the Taft cheering section. “California spends just more than $4,600.”

Mountain View High School of Mesa, Ariz., took second place with 47,098 points, and Oliver Wendell Holmes High School of San Antonio, Texas, came in third, at 46,885 points.

The nine Taft students began their arduous journey to the academic showdown over the summer, competing with classmates for a spot on the team, which includes students with A, B and C averages.

The nine took practice tests every day after school, studied over weekends and holidays, focusing on their work even as the Jan. 17 quake rocked their homes and school. It paid off when they made it to last month’s state competition--and won.

Taft also revived its secret weapon. Coach Arthur Berchin, who left the team after leading it to its earlier national title, returned for this year’s team.

Although the students went into the national finals with high expectations, they knew nothing was certain. Even Taft’s tie for first place at Saturday’s high-stakes Super Quiz, in which each student answers five oral questions before a partisan audience of students and parents, guaranteed only that the team was still in the running.

Scores on the other nine tests were not revealed until Sunday’s agonizingly long awards ceremony, where students were recognized for the highest scores in the 10 subjects: essay, speech, interview, math, fine arts, economics, science, literature, social studies and Super Quiz. Honors were also handed out for regional leaders, small-school high scorers, individual scholarship winners and highest-scoring students from each school.

As student after student marched through the hotel ballroom to receive a prize, the Taft team cheered its successes and twittered nervously each time a top competitor’s name was called.

Berdichevsky, who also won four subject medals, hummed “O, Canada”--the team’s quirky adopted anthem--to allay his nerves. Stephen Shaw, 16, who would take three subject medals, sat motionless, his hands clasped in his lap. Rebecca Rissman, 17, who eventually won three medals, tried to smile. And Michael Michrowski, 17, who won two medals, rested his face in his palms. Shapiro had the third-highest score in her division.

Also competing for Taft were Andrew Salter, 17, who took home four subject medals; Chris Huie, 17, with two individual medals; Sage Vaughn, 17, with one medal, and Sheldon Peregrino, 18.

“How can I not be nervous?” asked the gold medalist’s mother, Rosie Berdichevsky, ungluing her eye from the lens of her video camera. “I put myself in his place and feel what he must be feeling. It’s nice and it’s terrible.”

But once the individual high scorers were announced, with California claiming five of nine awards, the teen-agers’ grim expressions gave way to glee.

Finally, Shapiro said it: “I know we’re going to win now. Girls know things that boys don’t know.”

As the outcome became obvious, coaches from other schools began to console their students. Coach Larry Minkoff, from Whitney Young Magnet School in Chicago, told his team members that they were all winners. Still, a downcast Chicago student, Tukoi Jarrett, who won a gold medal for speech, would have none of that. “Then how come I feel like a loser?” he asked.

But all conversation in the ballroom was drowned by the screams of the Taft contingent when the school’s name was finally called out as the finest academic team in the country.

“There’s nothing like first place,” Berchin said.